


Lugnode Week 2019 Fills

by choomchoom



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: F/F, Post-Transformers: Lost Light 25
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-21 11:44:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21298925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choomchoom/pseuds/choomchoom
Summary: All my ficlets for the Lugnode Week prompts!1. Prompt: Settling Down. Anode and Lug build a house on Luna 1.2. Prompt: Friends and Crewmates. Old friends come to visit. [spoilers for Press Restart]3. Prompt: Date Night. A miscommunication leads to Anode and Lug both planning dates for their anniversary.4. Prompt: First Meetings. A crewmate notices the chemistry between Anode and Lug, who have definitely just met for the first time on this heist and for sure aren't already conjunxes.
Relationships: Anode/Lug
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	1. Forever, part 1

Anode and Lug built the house themselves, securing a plot of land with Anode’s advance for her new job. They picked the edge of the tiny town that had sprung up since the sparkfield flared, close to the slope that led down to the growing sparks.

Lug ended up doing most of the work – Anode was spending a lot of time working at the thawing facility that had been built next to the sparkfield, and Lug was looking for a job in the sense that if she tripped and fell into the perfect job, she’d take it, but “looking” was maybe a bit of an exaggeration.

Anode’s work brought in enough money. There was no need to hustle for scraps anymore. And Lug had a house to build.

This might finally be their _forever_.

They recharged facing the stars for the first few months as the house was being assembled, and when it was time to put a roof on the house, they included a sizeable skylight in the berthroom. Luna 1 didn’t have much atmosphere, so the views were never hampered.

Lug had to pause when she was about to finish the roof and hang the door – those were the last steps, and Anode would want to be around for that.

She’d expected to spend the afternoon working, though, and looked around for something to do with her hands. There were some extra slats from lining the windows, and that area facing the sparkfield looked perfect for a geode garden.

Lug was hammering the last slats into place when Anode came home, transforming into a landing just outside the house. “Hi,” Lug said, walking up to greet her with a kiss.

“Hi,” Anode returned. She gestured to the garden-to-be. “What’s all this?”

“For geodes,” Lug said. “You know I’ve always wanted a space to display the collection.”

For some reason, Anode frowned. “The collection was destroyed on the other moon, though. They never found our ship.”

Lug looked at the vast empty space she’d sectioned off. “We’ll get more.”

“Not if we don’t go anywhere.”

“Friends will bring us more. And we’ll go places. Sometimes. Occasionally.”

Anode’s expression changed to a smile – a little forced, but real. “Did you save that for us to do together?” she asked, nodding to the door.

Lug grinned. “Ready to have a home?”

Anode’s smile was incandescent as she nodded.

They hung the door and hammered in the hinges, and then Lug closed it behind them. Hand in hand, they walked through the rooms. Lug felt a little thrill at seeing each nail in the wall, each piece of furniture, each centimeter of their home.

They still needed to decorate. Anode had a good point about the geodes.

But they had a _house. _They’d made it.

**

After a few more months, they took a vacation.

It was a new concept for Lug. Ever since she and Anode had left the first Cybertron, travel had always meant either chasing something or being chased. The idea of gallivanting around for pleasure was something she was still warming up to.

Anode was practically vibrating with excitement, though, which meant that Lug was happy to be here too.

They were on Cybertron, in a city that had once been known as Mortilia. It was going by Tarn, now, its original name, which apparently was unsettling to some of the aligned Cybertronians from this universe. Lug didn’t feel very inclined to try to figure out why.

It was a busy city, and Anode pulled Lug in and out of shops, oilhouses, and art galleries for a few hours. Then she started to get a familiar look on her face, and Lug had to say, “Don’t steal anything.”

“Steal? That’s preposterous. I would never steal.” Lug snorted to keep from laughing, and Anode sighed as she pulled a gem-encrusted tiara from one of the art galleries out of a compartment. “Have to keep up the old skills.”

“You have to put it back,” Lug said. “We don’t need it.”

Anode looked at the tiara like it was a friend who had died, for a moment, then tucked it away and took Lug’s hand, walking back towards the gallery.

“Doesn’t it ever get to you?” she asked. “All this stillness?”

“What do you mean? This is what we _wanted_.”

“Never mind.”

**

Lug was relieved to get home and collapse in one of the chairs they’d set up in the garden-to-be. Anode was still restless, though, pacing around the house and fiddling with the window that had been sticking when they tried to open it. Lug gave her a bit to settle, but she didn’t, so eventually Lug went to find her.

“What’s up with you?” she asked. Anode was still messing with the window, and Lug took a seat on the couch.

“You’ll laugh,” Anode said, not turning around to look at Lug.

“When has that ever stopped you from saying things?”

She heard the smallest huff of laughter from Anode at that. “It wasn’t a proper adventure, you know?” she said. “We go to the city. We look at stuff. We try the drinks. That’s it. There’s no thrill. None of the excitement of making a pinch, or getting clear of someone chasing us, or anything fun at all.”

“I won’t laugh if it’ll make you upset,” Lug said. “But you know that’s ridiculous, right? It’s _good _that we don’t have to live that way anymore.”

“Yeah,” Anode said, sounding like her thoughts were far away as she sat down next to Lug and pulled her close. “Yeah, it is.”

**

The humans had a word for what Anode was, Lug discovered in a book she’d downloaded. _Stir-crazy_. She couldn’t say she understood what the metaphor meant, exactly, but it fit. They’d settled down, but Anode wasn’t settling in.

She worked a lot, and complained about work a lot, and convinced Lug to go flying with her most evenings. It was nice to be able to watch the sun set over the sparkfield, but Anode still never seemed quite satisfied when they got home.

They took a few more trips to Cybertron, but they weren’t adventurous enough for Anode and at the same time _too _adventurous for Lug, and both of them came home from them drained, so they stopped.

One day, Anode came home from work palpably nervous. Lug braced herself.

“I want to go to this,” Anode said, handing Lug a datapad. On it was a flier for an archaeological dig, apparently the first of several planned in order to unearth the remnants of this Cybertron’s old hot spots. It was perfect for Anode, one of the few people on the planet with the ability to sniff out crystallized sentio metallico.

“It sounds like a great idea,” Lug said.

Anode’s expression brightened. “So you’ll come?”

Lug frowned. “That’s not what I thought you were asking. And,” she looked at the flier a bit more, “I’d rather not.”

Anode’s demeanor deflated. “Okay,” she said, too sad about it by half.

“I’m not saying _you _can’t go,” Lug clarified.

“Oh.” Anode thought for a moment. “You’re sure?”

“It’s five days. I’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll even host the book club here.”

Anode smirked. “Nerd.”

“Have an adventure. I’ll be waiting to hear all about it.”

**

Lug bounced to her feet when she heard the distinctive sound of Anode’s engine outside. She opened up the door just as Anode was landing and ran forward to let Anode sweep her into her arms. They’d checked in with each other every night while Anode was away, but it wasn’t the same as this.

“I have so many stories,” Anode said. “First of all, the program director is a lunatic. He was telling me all these theories about the healing properties of innermost energon and I was just like, my guy, if you wanted to go into medicine you should have gone into medicine. And there was this underground cavern we found at the edge of the site that was apparently used as a bunker by the resistance here and hadn’t been opened in centuries, so that was awesome, and – oh! I almost forgot.” Anode set Lug down so that she could reach into a compartment. “Reunion present,” she said, handing the contents to Lug. She always had to have an excuse.

In Lug’s hand were two geodes, a perfect start for the garden.

Looking at them, Lug was certain for the first time in a long time that this was going to work. They were home.

For now, she tucked the geodes away so that she could hug Anode again.


	2. Forever. part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old friends drop by to see Lug and Anode on Luna 1.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short update today! This chapter takes place in the universe of and contains SPOILERS for my fic Press Restart, which is a Chromedome and Rewind-centric post-LL micro-fixit. It is also a direct sequel to the previous chapter.

Of the crewmembers Anode and Lug got to know well, only Minimus has settled on Luna 1. Lots of the crew is on Cybertron and the rest of them are traveling. There are annual reunions, for a while, and each time fewer people show up, and eventually Swerve stops organizing them.

He comes to visit, though, every once in a while, with new stories and drinks for them to taste-test. Anode and him prepare spectacular pranks for each other each time, and Lug gets to laugh and make them clean up the mess they make.

Nautica visits whenever her work brings her to the moon. It’s a rote catch-up between the three of them, usually. They each talk about their projects and Nautica knows both of their fields well enough that they usually end up talking shop. Lug remembers vaguely that Nautica used to be different, used to be less serious and more sarcastic and grounded in a way that she isn’t anymore. Maybe it’s just the sort of thing that happens as time passes, but Lug has a nagging suspicion that it isn’t.

Either way, Nautica is doing better than some. Rodimus swings by when the Exitus is in town. He always shows up drunk and he never wants to talk about the present, just exchange all the same old stories about the Lost Light. Lug can only hope that it helps, a little.

When Minimus visits, Lug can tell that he’s missing the old times too. He and Anode stiltedly talk about the sparkfield, and he leaves after a few hours. Lug sometimes wonders why he bothers, but supposes that seeing each other is enough of a taste of how things used to be to make it worth it.

Everything changes after Chromedome’s quest and Rung’s funeral.

It’s obvious that Rung made up much of the missing piece that Lug had noticed in Nautica. She’s…not happier, exactly, but better anchored, after. She makes plans for the future, these days, instead of doing every project under the assumption that the next one will never happen. She gets a flat on Cybertron, instead of living out of her shuttle, and when Anode and Lug see her, she’s usually with Brainstorm or Lotty.

Chromedome and Rewind travel more, after all that, and when they visit, Anode offers centuries upon centuries of well-honed advice on where to go and what to see. Lug supplements with the occasional “That’s probably not a good idea” and “I don’t think that collection was ever open to the public,” and the old stories the discussion generates are genuinely enjoyable to tell.

And when Rodimus comes around next, he still doesn’t talk about the Exitus, but he talks about seeing Drift and Minimus and asks after Anode and Lug, and it’s only after he’s left, looking happier than Lug has seen him in centuries, that Lug realizes that they didn’t talk about the Lost Light at all.


	3. Forever, part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Date Night! A miscommunication leads to Anode and Lug both planning dates for their anniversary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains mild spoilers for the end of Lost Light.

“You’ve got your schedule clear for tomorrow, right?”

“What?”

“Anode.”

“I didn’t forget the anniversary! I thought it was my year to plan it.”

“You’re even-numbered years! You always have been.”

“Yeah, but I was away last year so I assumed we were switching.”

They stared at each other. “I really want to do my thing.”

“I do too.”

“We could do like a double date? One date and then the other?”

“I think a ‘double date’ is a different thing. But yeah, let’s do both.”

**

Lug hadn’t given Anode any details, just told her to look “upscale”. She was finishing off a coat of polish when Lug came to get her.

“You look stunning,” Anode said, tangling her fingers with Lug’s and giving her a quick kiss as Lug pulled them toward the door.

“And you look lovely,” said Lug, tugging Anode along toward the transport center. Anode let Lug herd her into the transport – the last one they could take, if they didn’t want to miss the event – and they made small talk in the shuttle, even though Anode was obviously eager to find out where exactly it was they were going.

Lug led her to a museum with a crowd lining up outside of it. She produced two tickets from a compartment and led them to the back of the line. Now Anode looked wary, like she thought maybe Lug had forgotten that she didn’t like museums much except when she was stealing from them.

Lug didn’t let her stew for long. “Ye of little faith,” she said, and Anode’s face transformed from reluctance to guilt in a snap. Lug laughed, and the expression eased. She switched to Kit’ta, a language that none of the people around her but Anode could possibly know – their default, for situations where they didn’t want to be overheard. “There’s a secret auction going on behind the scenes at this event. Old religious artifact, practically priceless. We’re going to steal it.” And then ensure that it would be returned to its rightful owner, but that wasn’t the part that Anode would enjoy most. Anode was already grinning, optics unfocused like her mind was already alight with possible routes to get more information.

She took one moment out of scrutinizing the windows of the museum’s upper floors to level a glance at Lug. “I thought that this wasn’t so much your thing anymore.”

“It’s not how I’d spend _every _evening,” Lug admitted, “But I’m here to have fun too.”

Anode grinned and bent close to Lug’s audial to start whispering ideas for where this mysterious auction might be taking place.

**

Glass exploded out onto the street as Anode, in alt mode, burst through a large window near the top of the museum building. “I apologize if you were planning for a quieter exit,” she said as she danced through the air, avoiding the shots from the security guards that had been chasing them.

“We’re fine, the names on our invitations were fake,” Lug yelled back, focusing her own energy on keeping the previous bauble they’d liberated from the auction safe and whole. “Bank south,” she added as the air finally quieted around them, the security guards giving up on catching the flying menace that was Anode.

“What? We need to get away from the city, not –”

“Just trust me!”

Anode turned south and together they accelerated toward downtown. Lug pinged her contact, who responded immediately, and then she sent Anode a set of coordinates. Anode adjusted her course. In the distance, Lug could hear sirens.

Anode landed on the roof of the building that lay atop the coordinates Lug had sent her and with practiced efficiency, the two of them disappeared into the elevator shaft.

“Now what? Underground tunnels? Immediate buy?” Anode asked as she climbed downwards.

“Third floor,” Lug replied.

Anode obeyed, and soon enough they were climbing out of the elevator shaft and walking down the hallway like they owned the place. Lug marched up to a particular door and knocked.

Nautica’s expression was immediately skeptical when she opened the door to reveal the two of them. “This can’t be good,” she said. “Come on in.”

Once the door was shut behind them, Lug produced the bauble from a compartment, thankfully undamaged.

“Is that – is that the Sphere of Certainty? This is said to have been crafted by Solus Prime herself, how in the _cosmos _did you get your hands on it?”

“Funny story, actually, it’s our anni–”

That was as far as Nautica let Anode get before holding up a hand and saying “Actually, it’s probably better if I don’t know.”

“That’s fine, we’ve got places to be,” Anode said, taking Lug’s elbow and starting to tug her back toward the hallway.

That was actually probably true. Lug had almost forgotten. She waved at Nautica, who waved back with the hand that wasn’t cradling the sphere and said “Bye! Have fun, don’t get arres-” and then Anode shut the door behind them.

Lug followed Anode as she walked purposefully toward the transport center, both of them keeping their optics peeled for any cops that may have heard about the kerfuffle at the museum. They made it onto the Luna 1 transport safely, though, and Lug leaned against Anode for the trip back to the moon. She was glad that the second part of the evening would be taking place at least closer to home, she was already close to maxing out on excitement.

“Next part’s a surprise. Optics off,” Anode instructed as they stepped out into the moon’s cool air and thin atmosphere.

Lug obeyed, and soon enough Anode was strapping her onto her alt and taking off. She relaxed and held on.

When Anode landed, Lug dutifully kept her optics off until Anode, hands on Lug’s shoulders, told her to open them.

“It’s our house,” Lug said. They were standing just outside their patch of land, the stars glowing above them, and the unharvested sparks in the ground glowing below. Lug had always loved this view, and it was even better with the knowledge that whatever Anode had planned would take place right here.

“Is there anywhere you’d rather be?” Anode asked, sounding almost like she was serious.

“Don’t ask stupid questions.”

Anode smiled, soft and familiar, and took Lug’s hand to lead her into the garden. Before they’d left, Anode had apparently used her thief training to lay out engex, glasses, a covered plate of energon candies, and two unfamiliar apparatuses that looked sort of like goggles, all without Lug noticing.

“What are those?” Lug asked.

“Try it on,” said Anode.

For once, Lug was excited to be surprised. Anode might love the constant running and hiding and feeling like their backs were either pushed up against a wall or teetering on a cliff’s edge, but Lug…Lug had endured it. These days, she treasured knowing what was going to happen next, being able to predict and guide her own life. She hadn’t thought that she missed surprises.

But here was this, this small strange thing given to her from Anode, who she trusted with all her spark. She wanted to put it on, but she held it in her hands for an extra moment, marveling at how good it felt, for once, not to know.

“What are you waiting for?” Anode asked. Lug started to strap the goggles on.

“Just thinking about how great it is that you can still surprise me if I don’t think too hard,” she said. She adjusted the goggles, then refocused her optics. The stars above her were now threaded together with a display, naming and mapping them, with lines indicating constellations. “_Wow_.”

“Cool, right? Someone I met on one of the digs invented them, these are prototypes.” Anode pulled on the other set, and then sat down on one of the chairs, herding Lug onto her lap. Lug rested her helm against Anode’s shoulder. “It names the stars, see? And you can use the panel on the left side of the display to zoom in and see planets –”

They spent hours out there, looking at places they’d traveled and more that would remain unfamiliar. They passed the engex and the candies back and forth until they were gone, and kept talking after. Every second of it reminded Lug that this – this house, this life – was their forever, and like the stars, it was here to stay.

“This doesn’t seem like so much _your _thing,” Lug commented at one point, as her frame started to drift toward recharge.

“You know it’s not,” Anode said, “But it’s yours, and that’s enough.”

“Thank you,” Lug said.

“No need for any of that,” Anode said. “Danger, adventure, making a pinch – all well and good, but none of it quite compares to seeing you happy.”

Lug found Anode’s hand and threaded her fingers through Anode’s, holding on tight. It was the best way she knew to show Anode that she felt exactly the same.


	4. She's Obviously Into You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anode and Lug join up with another crew for a heist. Anode doesn't trust them, so she proposes a simple safety net to keep them from getting screwed over: pretend that she and Lug are strangers. 
> 
> For the First Meetings prompt! Some of you might recognize this as one of my TFCon zines :D

“It’s wonderful to meet you. I’ve heard so many great things,” Anode said as she enthusiastically shook hands with her conjunx endura. Lug looked skeptical.

Lug wasn’t supposed to be here at all, but the way things had unfolded, the crew Anode was working with had needed a geology expert. The artifact they were after was being stored in a storehouse that depended on the rocky cliff face it sat against for half of its security.

Lug had been happy to help, but Anode had set a condition: the others weren’t allowed to know that they knew each other. Anode liked her coworkers, but she didn’t trust them not to use Lug against her. Rhapsody, Gallium, and Nova were perfectly nice people, but they’d all been working together a while and she was pretty certain that they were intent on ditching her as soon as the artifact was in hand and they could take all the profits for themselves.

* * *

Lug turned toward the door to the lab as it opened, and tried not to look too disappointed when the visitor turned out not to be Anode. Rhapsody was carrying energon for her, though, so Lug pasted on a grateful smile.

“How’s it going?” Rhapsody asked. They were Lug’s favorite of the crew. Crime, to Rhapsody, seemed to be a stepping-stone to their real mission in life, which was to listen to and archive all the music in the universe. They were also the only other minibot on the crew – Lug had always appreciated having people her size around.

“It’s going good.” Lug took a sip of the energon Rhapsody had handed her. “I got the results back from the scans I did with the satellite Gallium hacked, and it looks like there’s a couple safe routes up the cliffside. Anode has two possible landing sites – the lower one is flatter, but she should be able to make the upper one, and it would knock a lot of time off.”

Rhapsody nodded. “I’ll tell Nova, unless you want to tell her yourself?”

Lug gestured in acquiescence, but Rhapsody didn’t leave.

“So, Anode, huh?”

“What about Anode?” Lug had to school her face to keep from smiling. This was _serious_. If Rhapsody was on to them…

“She’s obviously into you.”

Lug tried her best not to laugh, and she was probably lucky that Rhapsody interpreted it as embarrassment.

They clapped their hands. “You like her too!”

“We’re on a mission. It’s not the time for…that sort of thing,” Lug said, internally panicking. “Please don’t tell Anode?”

Rhapsody stood and patted Lug on the back. “I respect your dedication to the mission,” they said. “Please respect the fact that you and Anode would be very cute together.”

“I’m going back to work now,” Lug managed, and Rhapsody was laughing as they left the lab.

* * *

The heist was going fine. Lug’s fuel pump felt like it was about to hammer out of her chest because that was just the way these things worked, always, no matter how well the heist was going. Lug was by herself in the shuttle, pacing up and down its meager hallway, listening to the rest of the team do their jobs.

“Security shutdown complete,” Gallium said into their shared comms.

A few seconds later, Anode’s voice came over the line. Lug could hear the smile in it. “Artifact in hand.”

Lug was smiling too, until she heard the crash.

“I knew you were going to pull some –”

Anode’s comms fritzed out and Lug sprinted to the shuttle’s cockpit.

They had planned for this. Nova, Gallium, and Rhapsody had planned for a quiet exit. Anode and Lug had never much cared about that – an exit was an exit. And with the other three having obviously shown their true colors, Lug was happy to do the rest of it her way.

Lug started the shuttle and navigated to the top of the cliff, to the meeting place that Anode had shown her in a stolen moment. The plan was for Lug to land the shuttle on the roof – none of the others had flight alts, and they wouldn’t be able to chase Anode there.

When Lug reached the top, though, Anode was running toward the cliff, the object in her arms too bulky for her to transform with. And of course she was too stubborn to leave without it. Gallium and Nova were on her tail, Rhapsody a little behind them.

Lug landed the shuttle quickly and clunkily on the roof. She jumped off, transforming into her hardier alt to hit the ground. Within seconds, Anode scooped her up. Anode stuffed the artifact into Lug’s alt and then strapped Lug to her frame and transformed. Lug saw the others stop and gape.

“She’s my conjunx, fraggers!” she shouted.

As Lug piloted the shuttle away, she could see the rest of the crew. Gallium and Nova looked enraged, but Rhapsody’s optics shone with a gigantic smile. Lug directed a wave at them, and then they were gone.


End file.
